If a chemist from the twentieth century could step into a time-machine and
go back two-hundred years he or she would probably feel a deep kinship with
the chemists of that time, even though there might be considerable differences
in terminology, underlying theory, equipment and so on. Despite this kinship,
chemists have not been trapped in the past, and the subject as it is studied
today bears little resemblance to the chemistry of two hundred years ago.

Kabbalah has existed for nearly two thousand years, and like any living
discipline it has evolved through time, and it continues to evolve. One aspect
of this evolution is that it is necessary for living Kabbalists to continually
"re-present" what they understand by Kabbalah so that Kabbalah itself continues
to live and continues to retain its usefulness to each new generation. If
Kabbalists do not do this then it becomes a dead thing, an historical curiousity
(as was virtually the case within Judaism by the nineteenth century). These
notes were written with that intention: to present one view of Kabbalah as
it is currently practised in 1992, so that people who are interested in Kabbalah
and want to learn more about it are not limited purely to texts written hundreds
or thousands of years ago (or for that matter, modern texts written about
texts written hundreds or thousands of years ago). For this reason these
notes acknowledge the past, but they do not defer to it. There are many adequate
texts for those who wish to understand Kabbalah as it was practised in the
past.

These notes have another purpose. The majority of people who are drawn towards
Kabbalah are not historians; they are people who want to know enough about
it to decide whether they should use it as part of their own personal mystical
or magical adventure. There is enough information not only to make that decision,
but also to move from theory into practice. I should emphasise that this
is only one variation of Kabbalah out of many, and I leave it to others to
present their own variants - I make no apology if the material is biased
towards a particular point of view.

The word "Kabbalah" means "tradition". There are many alternative spellings,
the two most popular being Kabbalah and Qabalah, but Cabala, Qaballah, Qabala,
Kaballa (and so on) are also seen. I made my choice as a result of a poll
of the books on my bookcase, not as a result of deep linguistic understanding.

If Kabbalah means "tradition", then the core of the tradition was the attempt
to penetrate the inner meaning of the Bible, which was taken to be the literal
(but heavily veiled) word of God. Because the Word was veiled, special techniques
were developed to elucidate the true meaning....Kabbalistic theosophy has
been deeply influenced by these attempts to find a deep meaning in the Bible.

The earliest documents (~100 - ~1000 A.D.) associated with Kabbalah describe
the attempts of "Merkabah" mystics to penetrate the seven halls (Hekaloth)
of creation and reach the Merkabah (throne-chariot) of God. These mystics
used the familiar methods of shamanism (fasting, repetitious chanting, prayer,
posture) to induce trance states in which they literally fought their way
past terrible seals and guards to reach an ecstatic state in which they "saw
God". An early and highly influential document (Sepher Yetzirah) appears
to have originated during the earlier part of this period.

By the early middle ages further, more theosophical developments had taken
place, chiefly a description of "processes" within God, and a highly esoteric
view of creation as a process in which God manifests in a series of emanations.
This doctrine of the "sephiroth" can be found in a rudimentary form in the
"Yetzirah", but by the time of the publication of the book "Bahir" (12th.
century) it had reached a form not too different from the form it takes today.
One of most interesting characters from this period was Abraham Abulafia,
who believed that God cannot be described or conceptualised using everyday
symbols, and used the Hebrew alphabet in intense meditations lasting many
hours to reach ecstatic states. Because his abstract letter combinations
were used as keys or entry points to altered states of consciousness, failure
to carry through the manipulations correctly could have a drastic effect
on the Kabbalist. In "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism" Scholem includes
a long extract of one such experiment made by one of Abulafia's students
- it has a deep ring of truth about it.

Probably the most influential Kabbalistic document, the "Sepher ha Zohar",
was published by Moses de Leon, a Spanish Jew, in the latter half of the
thirteenth century. The "Zohar" is a series of separate documents covering
a wide range of subjects, from a verse-by-verse esoteric commentary on the
Pentateuch, to highly theosophical descriptions of processes within God.
The "Zohar" has been widely read and was highly influential within mainstream
Judaism.

A later development in Kabbalah was the Safed school of mystics headed by
Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria. Luria was a highly charismatic leader who
exercised almost total control over the life of the school, and has passed
into history as something of a saint. Emphasis was placed on living in the
world and bringing the consciousness of God through *into* the world in a
practical way. Practices were largely devotional.

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Judaism as a whole was
heavily influenced by Kabbalah, but by the beginning of this century a Jewish
writer was able to dismiss it as an historical curiousity. Jewish Kabbalah
has vast literature which is almost entirely untranslated into English.

A development which took place almost synchronously with Jewish Kabbalah
was its adoption by many Christian mystics, magicians and philosphers.
Renaissance philosophers such as Pico della Mirandola were familiar with
Kabbalah and mixed it with gnosticism, pythagoreanism, neo-platonism and
hermeticism to form a snowball which continued to pick up traditions as it
rolled down the centuries. It is probably accurate to say that from the
Renaissance on, virtually all European occult philosophers and magicians
of note had a working knowledge of Kabbalah.

It is not clear how Kabbalah was involved in the propagation of ritual magical
techniques, or whether it *was* involved, or whether the ritual techniques
were preserved in parallel within Judaism, but it is an undeniable fact that
the most influential documents appear to have a Jewish origin. The most important
medieval magical text is the "Key of Solomon", and it contains the elements
of classic ritual magic - names of power, the magic circle, ritual implements,
consecration, evocation of spirits etc. No-one knows how old it is, but there
is a reasonable suspicion that its contents preserve techniques which might
well date back to Solomon.

The combination of non-Jewish Kabbalah and ritual magic has been kept alive
outside Judaism until the present day, although it has been heavily adulterated
at times by hermeticism, gnosticism, neo-platonism, pythagoreanism,
rosicrucianism, christianity, tantra and so on. The most important "modern"
influences are the French magician Eliphas Levi, and the English "Order of
the Golden Dawn". At least two members of the G.D. (S.L. Mathers and A.E.
Waite) were knowledgable Kabbalists, and three G. D. members have popularised
Kabbalah - Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, and Dion Fortune. Dion Fortune's
"Inner Light" has also produced a number of authors: Gareth Knight, William
Butler, and William Gray.

An unfortunate side effect of the G.D is that while Kabbalah was an important
part of its "Knowledge Lectures", surviving G.D. rituals are a syncretist
hodge-podge of symbolism in which Kabbalah plays a minor or nominal role,
and this has led to Kabbalah being seen by many modern occultists as more
of a theoretical and intellectual discipline, rather than a potent and
self-contained mystical and magical system in its own right.

Some of the originators of modern witchcraft drew heavily on medieval ritual
and Kabbalah for inspiration, and it is not unusual to find witches teaching
some form of Kabbalah, although it is generally even less well integrated
into practical technique than in the case of the G.D.

The Kabbalistic tradition described in the notes derives principally from
Dion Fortune, but has been substantially developed over the past 30 years.
I would like to thank M.S. and the T.S.H.U. for all the fun.

****************

The author grants the right to copy and distribute these Notes provided
they remain unmodified and original authorship and copyright is retained.
The author retains both the right and intention to modify and extend these
Notes.